San Miguel Corp was earlier tagged as the terminal’s potential buyer but the deal fell through with the conglomerate deciding instead to funnel its resources to Manila North Harbor, the country’s busiest domestic port.

Tanco noted the company has “a lot of plans ahead of us. We just acquired the Batangas Port and we want to improve that. It’s a good alternative to Manila.”

He added ATI — a subsidiary of Dubai Ports World — is eyeing new ports in the country, adding they were “very bullish with the entry of the new administration. We want to show our support by developing more ports outside of Metro Manila.”

Mariveles terminal is estimated to be worth around P1.6 billion. According to ATI’s annual report, the facility can accommodate vessels of up to 70,000 deadweight tons, discharge cargo of up to 10,000 metric tons a day and store 180,000 metric tons of soybean meal and grain.